Ember
A new panic sweeps over me. Eliza looks—fragile. Her cheekbones are striking, like she’s lost a few pounds that didn’t need losing, and instead of her eyes being a golden-honey color, they look like aged bronze.
Her pale lips attempt a smile. “Hi, Ember.”
I slowly step toward her. “Are you okay?”
She chuckles halfheartedly. “Do I really look that bad?”
“You just… don’t look like yourself.”
The laugh lines around her eyes deepen. “I’m fine sweetheart, just… tired.” She notices Aiden. “Well, hi there, young man. Glad to see you’re looking well.” She nods toward his nose. “Besides that bandage.”
Aiden rubs his nose. “Yeah, thankfully it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Concern creases his features. “How have you been?”
“Oh, you know. Taking it one day at a time.” Eliza shrugs. “What else can you do?”
“Why didn’t you come to see me before everything started?” I ask.
“I only got here about twenty minutes ago. Traffic was horrible.”
“Oh, okay.” That means she didn’t experience what happened with Johnny. It’s probably for the best. The stress clearly wouldn’t be good for her. “I can fill you in on everything you missed.” Besides Johnny, of course.
She frowns, remorse drowning her eyes. “Unfortunately, I can’t stay, but I wanted to tell you that you did beautifully. I wish your parents could see the strong woman you’ve become.”
“To be fair, if they were alive, I wouldn’t have been up there.”
“That’s very true. All of this is unfair though, isn’t it?” Eliza says. A flash of a lime green light appears in her eyes. A display of her plasma abilities—of her brewing anger.
An uneasy silence falls over us. It’s unnatural. Normally, we’d share in our grief easily. But something is horribly off. “Eliza, what’s going on?”
She sniffles. “It’s… well, we’ve had a lot of loss in our lives, haven’t we?”
I swallow back the knot in my throat. “We have.” Aiden’s hand comes to my shoulder, and he squeezes it gently.
A tear rolls down Eliza’s cheek. “Em, there’s something I—”
“Isn’t this a sight! The famous Eliza back at the University of Stalwarth,” Stu proclaims, emerging from behind me. “I thought I’d never see the day.”
I glance at Aiden. He mirrors my annoyance at the sudden interruption.
“Of course, I’d be here for Ember. You know that,” Eliza snaps.
Stu nods and a tenderness pulls on his lips. “It’d just be nice to see more of you here, that’s all. You know I’d love to hire you as a lab assistant. Or maybe even a professor!”
“You know that would never happen.” Eliza’s response chills the air around us. “You lost my trust the moment you turned my thoughts against me.”
Stu clears his throat and fidgets with the end of his sleeves and cufflinks. “I don’t think this is the place to talk about that.”
“No, of course not,” Eliza says. “Thank goodness someone has to give you permission to read their mind. I’d hate to know what you’d use against someone if you could hear their thoughts without any hurdles.”
Stu crosses his arms over his round torso. “Even though you revoked the permission, I don’t need my ability to know exactly how you feel about me now.”
Aiden clears his throat. I bite my lip, not knowing what to say but wishing I was far from this situation.
Eliza looks at me, her face tense. “I’m sorry, Em, but I do have to get going. I have an appointment I need to get to.”
“Please don’t leave on my account,” Stu interjects. “I’ll go.”
“It’s fine.” Eliza narrows her eyes. “Believe it or not, everything isn’t about you.”
“Let’s just go somewhere else and talk for a minute,” I say quickly before Stu can retort.
“I wish I could,” Eliza says, softening her stance. “How about we arrange for you to come home soon?”
I feel like I have no other option. “Okay.”
Aiden tightens his hold on my shoulder.
Eliza reaches for my chin. “I’m so proud of you. You’ve come so far, honey.”
I lean down and embrace her tightly. She returns the hug with the same intensity. Her jasmine scent surrounds me, reminding me of home, of my days before the University of Stalwarth, when I thought my biggest problem would be to remain anonymous on campus. Those days seem so long ago.
“We’ll talk soon, okay?” she whispers into my ear. “Promise me you’ll stay on campus until then? You’re safer here.”
I pull back, staring at her with questions in my eyes. What does she mean, I’m safer here? If only she knew about Johnny and his threat, but all I can do is nod, not knowing what to say to her, especially with Stu watching both of us.
She reaches for my cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I say, my voice trembling.
Eliza drops her hand and looks at Aiden. “Keep her safe for me, will you?”
“Of course, but she can fight her own battles,” Aiden replies, smiling at me. “She loves to remind me of that.”
“That’s very true.” Eliza regards me with a proud glint in her tired eyes. “You are your parents’ daughter after all.”
I try to smile, but it feels too weighed down with all the lingering questions.
Eliza ignores Stu as she walks past him and stops near the black curtains, waving bye to Aiden and me. She leaves as quickly as she came.
Stu stares at the spot Eliza left in with turmoil in his eyes. He clears his throat and glances at me. “I have some things to attend to myself.” He pats my back roughly, causing me to hunch forward. “If you need me for anything, you know where to find me. Mr. Crawford had to leave for another engagement, but he wanted me to tell you that he hopes to work with you again in the future.”
I thank Stu for the message and again for his time, and with a quick nod, he leaves, heading in the same direction that Eliza left.
“That was painful to watch,” Aiden says. “Are you okay?”
“Not really. Something is going on with Eliza.” Irritation prods me. “I wish Stu didn’t show up when he did. I felt like she was going to tell me something.”
“Yeah. I wish he didn’t show up at all. They really didn’t end on a good note, did they?”
“No. Not at all. His ability made things rough between them.”
Aiden raises his eyebrows. “His ability is interesting. I mean, who would normally give someone permission to read their mind? How do you even figure out that’s your ability?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Aiden stares at me and creases his brow like he’s in deep thought.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m trying to read your mind.”
I laugh. “Is it working? What am I thinking?”
“That you wish you knew what was going on with Eliza.”
I sigh. “You already knew that.”
“Am I wrong?”
I shake my head. “Well, no, but—”
Aiden fist bumps the air. “Aha! I can read minds!”
“You’re being ridiculous.” I giggle, but the seriousness of the situation washes back over me. “I really do wish I knew what was going on with her.”
“I’m sorry.” Aiden frowns. “I didn’t mean to make light of the situation.”
“I didn’t think you were.”
“Do you have any idea what could be going on with her?”
My shoulders sag like sandbags. “I think Erik’s death hit her hard. Then between losing my parents and also losing her brother a while ago, I think all the grief is finally taking a toll.”
A gentle sadness tugs on Aiden’s lips. “What happened to her brother?”
“The only thing she really told me is he just disappeared one day.”
“He disappeared? Just like that? No other details?”
“Not really. She was very quiet about it, and I didn’t want to pry. The only other thing I learned was that his name was Stanley.” For a moment, I think time might’ve stopped again. Aiden becomes still, with his eyes wide. “Aiden? What’s wrong?”
He blinks. “Did… Did you say, Stanley?”
“Yeah, so?”
“What’s Eliza’s last name?”
“Bitar. Why?”
Aiden stumbles backward, as if my words punched him in the stomach. “No… no, no, no. It can’t be.” His eyes dart around chaotically. “It just can’t be.”
My heart hammers. “What is it?”
“We can’t talk here.” He glances at a couple of stage helpers removing the podium. “Let’s go to the dressing room.” He takes my hand and leads me to the musty room, with way too many costumes.
I close the door, but it’s difficult to turn the lock. My hands won’t stop shaking.
Aiden grips the vanity so hard his knuckles turn white. His back muscles are tense, pulling his button-up shirt tight.
“Aiden, what’s going on?”
He focuses on the pink tulips in the chair I left them in, taking slow, purposeful breaths. “Just give me a moment.” He turns around. A darkness resides in his eyes that I can’t quite place. “Is it okay if I hold you?”
“Of course.” He takes me in his arms and inhales deeply. His heart beats like the wings of a hummingbird, and he’s shaky. Suddenly, everything becomes clear. He’s having some kind of anxiety attack. I hug him tighter. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out like that.” His breath tickles my ear.
“It’s okay, but talk to me. What’s going on?”
He leans back and holds my hands, then kisses each of them tenderly. “I think you need to sit down.”
“Why?”
“Trust me.” The darkness returns in his gaze, and his brow creases. “I have to tell you something—something that’ll be painful for you to hear, but you need to know,” he says with a seriousness I’ve only heard once before, when he told me about his past regarding my parents.
I want to say something, to demand what is going on, but terror oozes into my veins like a foreign, icy substance. All I can do is move the tulips to the vanity and sit in the chair they were occupying.
Aiden takes the seat opposite from me and runs his hand through his hair. “Why today of all days?” he mutters.
“Aiden,” I say a bit sternly, “tell me what’s going on.”
He clasps his hands together and takes a long, deep breath. “We never talked about what I saw or heard during your parents’ murders. I know we meant to, but maybe we both didn’t want to relive that day?”
His words are like a cobra staring at me, coiled to strike. I’m scared to move or blink, fearful of the outcome. “I think we both wanted some time to heal. When you told me everything, we almost broke up over it.”
“You’re probably right, but we need to talk about it.” He places his hand on my knee. “I overheard your mom talking to Black Mold before he killed her, and she called him by his first name.” He swallows hard. “A name I’ll never forget.”
My sight stays transfixed on his lips, like they’re now the cobra. “What are you saying?”
“Em,” he says dryly, like he’s about to tell me someone else died. “Black Mold’s name is Stan—”
I stand quickly, almost knocking over my chair. “No. Don’t finish that sentence.”
“Ember.” He stands. “You know what I was about to say.”
“No. I don’t.” I head for the door, but Aiden rushes in front of me to block my exit. My eyes burn with my inner fire. “Get out of my way. I can’t, no, I won’t listen to this.”
Aiden’s eyes glow like two beacons in the dim lighting, electricity teasing their corners. “No.”
We stare at each other, both determined to stand our ground.
“I’m not going to do this today,” I finally say. “Haven’t I already been through enough?”
“That’s what sucks even more about all of this! I don’t want to tell you! You don’t deserve this!” Aiden’s tone is angry, however it’s not directed at me but at the universe. “I meant it when I told you the other day that I’ll never hide anything from you again, no matter how painful it may be to hear.”
I shake my head, refusing to believe the one parental figure in my life may have deeper ties with my mother’s murderer. “It can’t be true.”
Aiden’s eyes fade to their normal bright blue color, but remorse drags down their corners. He gently holds the sides of my arms. “Em, honey, I wish it wasn’t. But Stanley and Black Mold are one and the same.”
“Tons of people are named Stanley.” Tears well in my eyes, blurring my vision. “You can’t know for sure if it’s Eliza’s brother. Plus, she said he disappeared. Black Mold is clearly alive.”
“Don’t you think it’s strange she said disappeared, not dead?”
“No.” I shake my head furiously. “You don’t know that. It could be a different Stanley.”
“I wish it was, but in my Villains History class last semester, I learned his last name is… well, it’s Bitar.”
I step backward from Aiden. My world spins. I can’t breathe. Everything around me blurs together, and I grab my head. I’m suffocating. My dress is too tight. Everything is too much. The room is stuffy and closing in on me. The thermal energy in me swells, and my hands glow. “No… no.”
“Em. Breathe. Just breathe.”
Aiden moves for me, but it’s just enough for me to dart around him for my escape. If I don’t move, I’ll die. I need air. I need to run—run from my past and the secrets that remain there.